*** CASEY KASEM (1932-2014)--"PERHAPS RADIO'S GREATEST VOICE" ***

By ROB DURKEE

Author, "American Top 40: The Countdown Of The Century"

There's only ONE way to salute radio pioneer extraordinaire Casey Kasem…

…with a Long Distance Dedication.

It goes out not just to Casey, but to his fans...millions of listeners covering at least two generations....people who experienced the enjoyment, the honor and the sheer thrill of hearing perhaps radio's greatest voice ever. With his friendly voice, his human interest stories, trivia and chart pieces, Casey educated us about pop music even though we hardly realized it. He was heard world-wide in over 75 foreign countries.

If Elvls Presley was the King of Rock and Roll and Michael Jackson the King of Pop, then surely Casey was the King of the Countdowns. To paraphrase Carly Simon, nobody did it better. And for nearly 40 years from 1970 to 2009, when he played about 10,000 records and read some 4000 dedication letters.

Casey Kasem wasn't just a one-in-a-million air talent. One-in-a-Centillion was more like it...a talent you'd be fortunate to hear in your lifetime. And his legacy lives to this day...because "American Top 40," now hosted by Ryan Seacrest, is heard on over 400 radio stations worldwide.

Sadly, Casey was 82 when he died Sunday, June 15, 2014, from complications of Lewy body dementia. He mustn't be remembered for his failing health or the bitter family dispute between his second wife, Jean Kasem, and the children from his first marriage. Instead, he must be remembered for the nearly 40 years he entertained us.

His voice will never be silenced. Two of his past shows are heard on weekends, one from the 70’s and one from the 70’s. If you missed them, you can hear them replayed on the iHeart radio web site. Many stations are rumored to be planning to play Casey marathons. Meanwhile, just do a search under “Casey Kasem” in YouTube. There’s only 52,000-plus items to choose from to hear. If you do a Google search of "Casey Kasem," there's over 4.4 million items to see.

While Casey was featured in over 100 combined movies and TV shows, particularly as the voice of Shaggy in the animated "Scooby Doo" cartoon series, "American Top 40" and his spinoff AC (Adult Contemporary) and Hot AC countdown shows were by far his greatest achievements.

How did Casey do it? Simple. He was being his ever-friendly self...and did something that takes literally years to perfect--talking to that listener. Whether it was his favorite chart piece (the Beatles with all five of the top five songs in April 1964)…

…or whether it was a human interest story (e.g. Al Jarvis, the world's first disc jockey), you swore Casey was sitting next to you while telling it to you.

Many features taken for granted on today's countdown shows have Casey to thank. When you hear a Rick Dees or a Bob Kingsley opening his show with a “hello” and a review the previous week's top 3-5 hits, each has Casey to thank. That feature started by accident with the February 24, 1979 AT40 show, when "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart was #1. "American Top 40" had just switched from a three-hour to a four-hour show the first weekend of October, 1978. Thus, there was time to play the previous week's top three. Eventually, there wasn't time to play any of the previous week's top three, but the seed had been planted.

Likewise, Casey revolutioned the idea of teasing a song coming up in his countdowns. His teases were short but highly effective. For example, after backselling, "Don't Leave Me This Way" by Thelma Houston as the #3 song in the USA on the April 9, 1977 AT40 show, Casey came up with this tease: "You know, there's a world famous foreign group in our countdown, who so far have refused to play concerts in the USA. It's because they've never a #1 record here. Well, in a few minutes, they can start packing." Then, after the ad break, you heard "Don't Give Up On Us" by David Soul at #2...and then Casey's payoff story and #1, "Dancing Queen" by Abba.

Whenever you hear a countdown DJ mention his show's affiliates, he or she has Casey to thank. Station mentions began on AT40 with KMEN/San Bernardino. That station mention came eight weeks after "American Top 40" made its debut on the Fourth Of July weekend of 1970.

It was the culmination of a 21-year odyssey that began one day in 1949. The young man born Kemal Amin Kasem on April 27, 1932 was 17 years old and working at Detroit's Louis Stolinsky's Beer Store. On the radio at the store was CKLW and a countdown called "Eddie Chase And The Make-Believe Ballroom." As Casey recalled, "Eddie had a one-hour show, and I only heard it once. It always stuck in the back of my head. I said to myself, 'If I ever become a DJ, that's the kind of show I'd want to do--a national countdown’."

When “American Top 40” debuted, there were only seven affiliates. The station count increased to well over 100 a year later…and by 1981, there were over 500 USA affiliates. Along the way in the show’s early years, there were specials like the Top 40 Christmas songs and Casey’s favorite, The Top 40 Disappearing Acts.

Casey's greatest feature, though, was born on the show of August 26, 1978. "Desiree" by Neil Diamond was the first Long Distance Dedication, going out from James to Desiree, who as a member of a military family had just moved from the USA to Germany. "Maybe my Desiree in Germany will hear it," James wrote. Nearly 30 years later, James and Desiree were tracked down by Casey's staff. The best of their interviews were aired on the AT10 and AT20 shows saluting the LDD on Valentine's Day weekend, 2007.

Over a 31-year-period, there were all kinds of Casey dedications. A teenage girl wrote to scold singer-actor Leif Garrett for reading "Playboy" magazine, and Casey played "Does Your Mother Know" by Abba. Another girl dedicated "Babe" to the Raggedy Andy doll she'd had since age two...and told Casey, "I'll make sure he's sitting by the radio." A couple in New Zealand were reunited thanks to the song "You Needed Me" by Anne Murray...and would name their daughter after Casey. A mother wrote to dedicate "Tragedy" because the Bee Gees' song helped her young daughter overcome a fear of thunderstorms.

Perhaps the most unique LDD, though, came in April, 1979. Casey read an LDD from then high school student Barry Barringer, who openly invited actress Cheryl Ladd to his school's prom. Barry sent Ladd an invitation complete with candy. Cheryl couldn't make it--she was married, after all--but did take the time to call Barry to thank him for the thoughtful invitation. In February, 1980, Casey would read a followup letter from Barringer about Ladd's call. Casey's staff checked on it to verify that it was, indeed, Ladd who made the phone call.

About 10 and a half years after the first LDD was born came what Casey would label "the most important letter I ever read." It was Casey's first Request And Dedication that aired on his debut "Casey's Top 40" show on the Westwood One network the weekend of January 21, 1989. Then 10-year-old Chelsea wrote, "I'm worried that so many people in this country have no place to go and not enough to eat...At my tenth birthday party, I asked my guests to bring canned food instead of presents...please dedicate 'One Moment In Time' by Whitney Houston to all the homeless." Casey never forgot that letter. Not long after his daughter, Liberty, was born, his family asked friends and relatives to bring canned food and clothing to a birthday party instead of presents. The same thing happened with three Christmas parties.

That first "Casey's Top 40" culminated a change in scenery for Casey that dated back some three years in late 1986. That's when he started trying to negotiate a new contract with ABC, but felt he was being put off. Casey then shopped around his talents and wound up with an offer he couldn't refuse from Norm Pattis, the CEO of Westwood One. After signing with the new network, Casey hosted what everybody figured was his last AT40 show ever on August 6, 1988. Shadoe Stevens replaced him as the show host starting the next weekend. Since his old contract with ABC, worth an estimated $1.2 million, didn't expire until January 17, 1989, Casey was essentially paid by ABC to not count them down for five months.

Still, when "Casey's Top 40" debuted, both the new contract given Casey (five years, $15 million) and the number of stations CT40 debuted with (over 400) were unheard-of unprecedented feats. Westwood One ads featuring Casey were the same as what was shown on the cover of a typical show's vinyl record set...a photo of Casey with the headline "The Original...and Still The Best."

When the Current Hit Radio (CHR) format took a huge hit with roughly 600 such stations changing to other formats by 1991, Casey and Westwood One came up with the perfect counteraction. In March 1992, Casey began a second show, counting down the week's top Adult Contemporary hits with "Casey's Countdown." A third show of the week's top Hot AC hits, "Casey's Hot 20," would follow in November, 1994.

Meanwhile, Casey's former show, "American Top 40," struggled mightily. When ABC saw the show as a money loser, AT40 suddenly left the USA airwaves the weekend of July 16, 1994. It was replaced with another show ABC landed, "The Rick Dees Weekly Top 40." Radio Express, which distributed "American Top 40" to foreign countries, continued to do so, but for only about another six months. On the weekend of January 28, 1995, the last AT40 show ever aired. Or so everyone thought.

When the ABC network did nothing with AT40 for two years, by contract the show's ownership reverted back to Casey and co-founder Don Bustany in early 1997. This would prove to be a pivotal move. About a year later in February, 1998, Casey suddenly left the Westwood One Network to sign with the AMFM Network. He took advantage of a contract stipulation that said if advertising profits fell below $6 million, either party had the right to opt out of the contract. To give you an idea of just how powerful Casey's popularity was, consider this: After Casey's last shows with Westwood One on the weekend of February 21, 1998, the network tried for the next three weeks to have shows that couldn't mention the word "Casey" anywhere. Not even in the title. "Casey's Top 40" became "The Top 40,"; "Casey's Countdown" became "The Countdown"'; and "Casey's Hot 20" became "The Hot 20."

The worst thing, though, was when the substitute hosts couldn't start a dedication letter with the words "Dear Casey." One of them was David Perry, who once on a Casey show said "I'm Casey Kasem." Perry reflected, "I mean, Casey's the one that started the whole thing. I couldn't say 'Dear David.' The first one I did like that in the session taping the show, I just said, 'And here's what she writes: (slight pause) A year ago...' I got about four sentences into this thing and I just stopped and said, 'Man, this is too weird.' And everybody said, 'Yeah, it is'."

The weekend of March 28, 1998 marked an historic and welcomed reunion. "American Top 40," the show that was seemingly gone and left for dead for 38 months, was reborn and hosted by the man who started it 28 years earlier. "Casey's Top 40" went back to being "American Top 40," "Casey's Countdown" became "American Top 20 (AC)" and "Casey's Hot 20" became "American Top 20 (Hot AC)."

Former AT40 host Shadoe Stevens led the way in applauding the reunion. "I think it's terrific," Shadoe said. "It's Casey's franchise. It's a great show--and he should be doing it. He created it. He went through the hardship of getting it on the air. Out of nothing, he created something that was bigger than life." In August , 2000, the AMFM Network was purchased by Premiere Radio Networks, which would handle Casey's shows the rest of his countdown career.

Starting with the second weekend of 2004, Casey handed the AT40 mike over to Ryan Seacrest...and congratulated Ryan via a phone message. Two months later, "American Top 20 (AC)" became "American Top 10."

The last Casey shows aired the weekend of July 4, 2009. His last Long Distance Dedication came to him from a listener named Adam who wrote, "Casey, you've touched a great number of people through your shows and you should be very proud of the impact you've had on our society. The radio airwaves just won't be the same without you."

That LDD's song was "Thank You For Being A Friend" by Andrew Gold. The two shows' last #1's were "Second Chance" (Shinedown) on "American Top 20" and "Love Story" (Taylor Swift) on "American Top 10." Before saying "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars" one last time, Casey noted, "I'd like to share with you something I've learned over the years. Success doesn't happen in a vacuum. You're only as good as the people you work with out and the people you work for. I've been lucky. I worked for and with the very best."

Oh, that reminds me. There's one more song to play...and it's the one for this Long Distance Dedication to Casey. What better song to play than the one popular in the Fall of 1989?

After all, to paraphrase Tina Turner, when it came to radio voices, Casey was...

"Simply the best."

***

*** CASEY'S FIVE GREATEST STORIES...COUNTED DOWN OF COURSE ***

5. "Joan Weber, The #1 Disappearing Act" -- Of all the specials Casey ever did, "The Top 40 Disappearing Acts" was his favorite. On the first of two shows the July 7, 1973 weekend, Joan Weber was #3 partly because she couldn't be found. About two weeks before the second One-Hit Wonder show aired the April 5, 1975 weekend, she was found, making her the Greatest Disappearing Act of All time.

"The story I'm about to tell you may sound like a piece of fiction, but to the best of our knowledge, it's true." He goes on tell how, in late 1954, Weber was 17, pregnant and short on money. She's paid $15 to record a demo. A producer hears it, likes it, and has her record a song that ends up on the TV show, "Studio One." That song, "Let Me Go Lover," goes to #1 the day her child is born. But in describing Weber's sudden fame, Casey noted, "In her own words, it happened too fast. She wasn't ready. And a year later, she was a nobody again...and the money was spent. THIS is the song that gave her those few moments of glory..."

4. "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" -- Imagine, a ship over two football fields long sinking in Lake Superior along with all 29 crew members on November 10-11, 1975. But, as Casey would note in a story told at least a half dozen times, there were even more scary facts that weren't told in the 1976 Gordon Lightfoot hit. In his tease, Casey noted, "What it doesn't tell, is how that great lake had already swallowed 17 other ships on that exact same date in history."

On November 11, 1930, a storm on Lake Superior destroyed five ships and drowned 67 people. On November 11, 1913, an even worse date--12 ships sunk, 254 people drowning. "Incredible and tragic coincidences," noted Casey, adding that with the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking, "No one knows exactly what happened, or just how it was for those unfortunate men that night...but it was probably pretty much like Gordon Lightfoot tells it."

3. "How A Christmas carol interrupted a battle." -- When Casey told this story in late 2001, it involved World War I and "Silent Night." But when Casey told this story 21 years earlier in late 1980, the story involved the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and "Oh Holy Night." Different wars, different songs...but the spirit of the story was still vintage Casey...how a war battle either late Christmas Eve or early Christmas Day momentarily stopped when a soldier stood up in the line of fire...and began singing a Christmas carol. In the 1980 story, Casey concluded, "In the middle of one of mankind's periodic insane rituals of death, the spirit of Christmas had touched men's souls. For a brief instant, in that man-made Hell, there was peace on earth, and goodwill among men."

2. "Al Jarvis, The World's First Disc Jockey." -- Radio stations weren't licensed to play commercial records in the early 1930's, instead relying on live orchestras or special recordings not by name artists. Al Jarvis changed everything, talking his boss at his Los Angeles station to start playing records. His "Make Believe Ballroom" show lasted from roughly 1932-1957. Then came hard times with money problems and small radio station jobs. Unable to find a job with a major Los Angeles station, Jarvis made a final gesture in September 1969, holding a sign that said "There must be a place for me in radio" in front of KMPC on Sunset Blvd.

Jarvis was 58 when he died of a cerebral hemorrhage eight months later. "For American Top 40 and for myself," said Casey, "I salute a man whose energy and imagination started something that’s so much a part of our lives that we just take it for granted...being able to hear our favorite songs...by our favorite artists...on the radio. Al Jarvis, we thank you..."

1. "The Alan Freed Moondog Coronation Ball fiasco" -- Rock and roll music had to overcome many obstacles to gain acceptance...and this was the first. While at WJW/Cleveland, Alan Freed popularized the words "rock and roll" to describe a growing trend of more uptempo pop music. His Moondog Coronation Ball set for Saturday night, March 21, 1952 at the Cleveland Arena turned into a riot. That's because there were as many counterfeit tickets sold as legitimate ones. When some 22,000 people tried to cram into a building meant to hold only about 12,000, a full-scale riot erupted. Extra police had to be called along with firemen who'd use their hoses to break up the mess. To escape injury, Freed had to be hoisted via a rope to the upper level announcer's booth.

"For the next two days," Casey noted, "while the Chief of Police, the Mayor and the Fire Chief were all screaming for his head, Alan Freed was nowhere to be found. And then, Monday night at 7 o'clock, he walked into his studio at WJW unannounced to host his regular program. For 30 minutes, he just talked, explaining about the counterfeit tickets, and expressing his deep regrets for the confusion...and his sympathies for the people who were injured. And I guess Freed must've been very very convincing...because the next morning, all the charges brought against him were dropped. And two months later, the city of Cleveland rented him the arena for another event, that went off without a hitch...part of the legend of rock and roll." (PS...Alan Freed didn't invent the term "Rock and roll." He popularized it. Big difference...because in another story Casey often told, there was a 78 single release by the Boswell Sisters ENTITLED "Rock And Roll" in 1934)

***

*** CASEY'S FIVE GREATEST SALUTES...COUNTED DOWN BY ME ***

5. Linda Creed -- She died of cancer at the age of 37 in 1986. This was the woman who along with Thom Bell, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff created the Philadelphia soul sound of the 70's, including hits for the Stylistics and Spinners. As Casey pointed out May 3, 1986, "If you do something really good in life, they might put up a statue after you die--and that's nice. But if you WRITE a great song, you don't need a memorial chiseled in stone. They'll SING your statue...like one of the hottest songs in the countdown sung by Whitney Houston with lyrics written by Linda Creed...For someone who could write lyrics with such sensitivity and emotional depth, it would've been a crime if she hadn't been a songwriter." Casey concluded this tribute over the intro to "The Greatest Love Of All" by noting, "Whitney Houston's current smash remake of this song is the greatest memorial....that the late Linda Creed could've wanted."

4. Ray Charles. "Now, our tribute to the superstar Aretha Franklin called 'the voice of a lifetime,' ...the man known as 'The Genius'," was the way Casey's salute began the Fourth of July Weekend 2004. He added that Ray Charles had "A life in music that lasted 58 years. Ray embraced different worlds of music, brought them together and made them his own. His music was rock and roll, it was R&B, it was country, it was jazz, it was big band. Legendary producer Quincy Jones says, quote, 'There will NEVER be another musician who does as much to break down the walls between different music..than Ray Charles'." Casey concluded that Ray Charles "left a great legacy of music, including this AMAZING rendition of 'America The Beautiful'." That song was done live by Ray before the second game of the World Series on October 28, 2001. The audience applause was stellar...and in this writer's opinion, is the greatest live patriotic song performance ever.

3. Gordon McLendon. This October 18, 1986 tribute was to the radio pioneer who took the concept of the top 40 format to never-before excellence. In his salute, Casey noted that McLendon "left a mark on radio that may never rub off...who developed the Top 40 format. From all reports, he was the first to use jingles, the first to use newscasts, every hour on the hour...and the first to use heavy promotion to compete with other stations...the first all-news radio station was his creation. So was the first radio staton to broadcast nothing...but classified ads....Radio people talked about Gordon McLendon when he was living. And how that he’s gone, we’ll still be talking about the man who gave modern radio the sound it has today."

2. John Lennon--The AT40 show for December 13, 1980 was already recorded and being mailed out to affiliates when Lennon was murdered Monday night, December 8, 1980. Casey's staff huddled the next morning and knew they had to make two key changes in that show. An early feature about posthumous hits needed to be zapped...and the intro to song #4 indicating John was alive...had to be changed. Fortunately, the stories were on opposite sides of the same vinyl record, so an emergency replacement disc was easy to make and send out.

Casey's salute in part said, "His fans had known him as the Beatle who did the most of the talking. He was witty...and he made us laugh. He was deep...and he made us think. He had vision and he made us see. And together with Paul, George and Ringo, he made all that great Beatle music....John died having discovered who he was: John Lennon, husband to Yoko, father to Sean. Yoko, I hope you can take comfort in that. And, Sean, when you’re old enough to begin wondering why people love the Beatles and your father so much, they’ll be millions of us around to explain it to you.” Then, you heard the bell ringing to signal the start of the hit song, "(Just Like) Starting Over."

1. Elvis Presley. There's no better tribute than this one Casey did on his August 27, 1977 AT40 show: "The biggest single entertainment personality America has ever produced is the man who sold more than 500 million records, dominated the pop charts for more than two decades…the man who starred in 33 films and several of the highest rated TV shows in history…the man who gave two generations of Americans a musical voice, to express their hopes and dreams and frustrations. The man whose first name alone identifies him in EVERY corner of the world.

The man they call the King, Elvis Presley. You know, in the nearly two weeks since he died, the media has been filled with stories about his extraordinary achievements. And here on American Top 40, the overpowering chart dominance of Elvis Presley has been the first and LAST word of the rock and roll story that we've been telling you every week for the past seven years now.

It's almost an understatement to SAY that Elvis Presley changed forever the course and sound of popular music. Without him, there probably would not have been a group called the Beatles or a world-wide phenomenon like the rock and roll era. Through the years, I've enjoyed a lot of his records. But the one that has moved me the most was the one that I saw him do live in his Las Vegas debut several years ago ("Suspicious Minds"). I'd like to play it for you now. It's an uptempo sound, but that's how I'd like to remember Elvis."

***

*** CASEY'S FIVE FUNNIEST STORIES--COUNTED DOWN, OF COURSE ***

5. The most insane night ever for the group Kansas. -- So you think Kansas had a bad night in 1973 at Fat Albert's, a saloon near Des Moines, Iowa? When a brawl between two motorcycle gangs wrecked most of the furniture and caused the saloon to close? Hardly. It gets worse. While Kansas' members were consoling the owner over the injuries and damage, a man kept walking in demanding to be served...and kept getting thrown out. But, as Casey noted, "the persistent little guy came back one last time. In his car! Which he drove RIGHT THROUGH the wall. And it was no accident. He had complete control. He gave the owner a look that meant, 'Don't mess around with me,' then threw it in reverse and backed out of the saloon through a DIFFERENT wall!"

4. The "zebra" that changed Bruce Springsteen's life. -- As a teen, Bruce had his share of clashes with his dad...so much so that his mom insisted the two take a vacation down in Tijuana, Mexico. Bruce told writer Dave Marsh, "We got in the car and drove there arguing all the way. As soon as we pulled into town, some guy came up to my old man and said, 'Would you like to have your picture taken on a zebra?' We figured zebras live in AFRICA, not Mexico. So we said to the guy, 'If you've got a zebra, we want to have our picture taken!' We gave him $10 and he took us around the corner...and he's got a donkey with stripes painted on its side. And he sits us on the donkey and takes our picture. My mother's still got that picture. And the whole experience was so funny, that my father and I couldn't argue anymore."

3. Three Minutes Of Silence -- What better place is there to rank this story...but #3? In his tease, Casey said, "Now, listen to this (two seconds of silence). Want to hear it again? OK. (two more seconds of silence). Silence. Dead silence! An excerpt from an actual commercial record released back in the 1950's! It didn't make the chart but it was a favorite in jukeboxes!" In his payoff story, he tells how two CBS engineers named Hamilton O'Hara and Don Foster "once tried to turn silence into a gold record" with the 1953 single, "Three Minutes Of Silence." Casey pointed out, "Pop critics gave it rave reviews, tongue-in-cheek of course...Whenever a customer wanted relief from music blaring from the jukebox, all he had to do was drop in a coin, press the buttons for 'Three Minutes Of Silence'--and that's what he'd get. Now, the record never made the chart, probably because it didn't get much airplay...but lot of stations got requests for it. An oddity in the world of popular music." (P.S. It was remade as "Silent Night" on the Beserkley label...and remade again by Stiff Records as "The Wit And Wisdom Of Ronald Reagan"...with 40 minutes of silence)

2. The Tai Elephant Orchestra -- What, a 19-song CD by a group consisting of a dozen elephants? Playing gongs and percussion instruments? Sure, why not! It was released in 2001 to benefit the Thai Elephants, whose population in a century had dwindled from 100,000 to under 3,000. It's still available at Amazon.com...with the last cut being "Chang Chang Chang." NOT on the CD is "Baby Elephant Walk"--and there's no word on whether the elephants planned to tour or sign autographs.

1. Paul McCartney rescues his chickens -- "Coming up," said Casey in his tease, "the hard-to-forget story of Paul McCartney, a flock of chickens and a taxi cab...a tale of the ridiculous and the humane." In his payoff, Casey said, "I've told many a tale on 'American Top 40', but this one is the only story I know that stars a taxi full of chickens...Paul left his home in London to take his family on vacation to their farm in Scotland. But not long after Paul, Linda and the kids arrived in Scotland, they realized there was no one left at home in London to take care of Paul's small flock of pet chickens. And Paul became concerned that without his loving care, his flock might just cluck their way into hysteria, so what did he do? Why, what any self-respecting chicken lover WOULD do! Paul telephoned for a taxi cab in London to pick up his chickens and drive them 300 miles to his farm in Scotland. The taxi meter rang up a fare of about 100 pounds, which then was roughly the equivalent of $200. And Paul McCartney had his beloved chickens roosting at his side once again. Any animal lover would understand."